Indiana DNR wants charges dropped in deer rescue c...

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) _ The Indiana Department of Natural Resources says it is asking a prosecutor to drop charges against a couple who nursed an injured baby deer back to health.

The DNR said in a statement Friday that Gov. Mike Pence asked the agency to reevaluate the case.

The DNR says it is seeking the dismissal of misdemeanor charges of illegal possession of a white-tailed deer against police officer Jeff Counceller and his wife, Jennifer, of Connersville.

The case has sparked an Internet furor.

The couple found the injured deer in 2010. The DNR told the Councellers to return the ailing deer to the wild, but they took it home and nursed it back to health. The deer vanished last summer on the day when the DNR planned to euthanize the animal.